Literature

Transit - The Apparent and the Disappeared

In the pictorial work of Stephan Kaluza, it generally revolves around representations of nature, hyperrealistic depictions (oil on canvas), or nearly abstract portrayals of forests and water surfaces. An apparent idyll is painted, for not everything in these images is pure nature: disturbances creep in, and often appearances deceive, especially when idyllic landscapes conceal former battlefields or other places of human abysses. Thus, these images acquire a second level: the ostentatious beauty of nature in the Nunc Stans, in the timeless present, becomes questionable. Therefore, the underlying second level of these images is actually the first; it is less about copying the visible than exploring what lies hidden behind the force of nature and, thus, it particularly concerns the central question: What is creation?